


Death in the Family

by Descended_from_Hufflepuffs



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019), Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders is a Mess, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Deceit | Janus Sanders is a Good Friend, Gen, Graphic Description of Corpses, M/M, Murder, Roman is a suspect for a bit so warning, Thomas is dead, description of death, is very sad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:20:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24538381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Descended_from_Hufflepuffs/pseuds/Descended_from_Hufflepuffs
Summary: One night, Virgil and Thomas go out to live a little. They are later kidnapped and murdered. Virgil managed to fake his way out of death and call for help. Our Major Crimes team is on the case and they'll need the help of a strange group of friends if they're going to figure this one out.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Deceit | Janus Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Logic | Logan Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Gil Arroyo & Malcolm Bright, Logan Sanders & Jessica Whitly, Malcolm Bright & Dani Powell, Remus Sanders & Edrisa Tanaka
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Death in the Family

**Author's Note:**

> Will I ever finish a story before starting a new one? Probably not. So here's this. Enjoy.

Virgil’s shoulder shook with sobs as blood slowly flowed towards him.  _ The floor is uneven,  _ he thought to himself as a distraction. It didn’t do much to block out the image of Thomas’ eyes draining of life but hey it tried.

The door banged open and he immediately sat up, fixing a scowl on his face and praying his tears weren’t too obvious. “What do you want?” He growled.

He got no response, just a punch that sent him tumbling to the floor. He cried out softly when his head hit the concrete floor and his hands ached from where they were tied behind him. The masked figure straddled him and wrapped his hands around Virgil’s throat, squeezing tighter and tighter until his airway was completely cut off. The unidentified person held him like this until he went limp, all life seemingly drained out of him.

Their work done, they left the room and exited the building where the previous hours of torture had taken place. The two bodies were left behind for someone to find, or for no one to find depending on how things went.

Virgil gasped for air as soon as the room was clear. He knew enough about strangulation from Remus ranting about horror movie inaccuracies for him to be able to (mostly) dodge a fatal situation. He scrabbled about in his back pockets and managed to get his phone; it was cracked but still usable. It seemed odd that their captor hadn’t thought to get rid of it but then again, it was clear he was never intended to use it again. He carefully manipulated his limbs until his fingers could reach the emergency call button.

After what felt like an eternity of ringing and fear, “9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” came the voice of a tired angel.

He nearly sobbed with relief. “Hello? I- My name is Virgil Sanders. I-I’m in a basement of somewhere and my friend...he’s dead. They killed him. I-I don’t know if they’re coming back….”

“Sir, are you injured?”

“Y-Yeah.”

“Alright, sir, I need you to stay on the line. We’re tracking you down now and the ambulance and police will be on their way soon.”

“Thank you…. Thank you….”

\--------------------------------

Malcolm Bright waked through the scene. It was early for him to be called onto a scene but given the trouble they’d been having tracking down this killer, he didn’t mind too much. Gil was waiting for him outside of the abandoned building where the 9-1-1 call had come through. “The victim’s name is Thomas Sanders,” he started. “He’s in pretty bad shape, worse than the previous victims.”

“Our killer is escalating,” Bright murmured. “The deaths will keep getting more severe and more frequent until we catch them.”

“Let’s hope that’s soon. This time, they picked up two victims. Fortunately for us, they rushed through the second kill. Attempted strangulation.” He pointed to a man in a purple hoodie stained with blood and a haunted look in his eyes. “Kid’s barely said a word since the ambulance got here and even that was just to say the floor was uneven.”

JT and Dani were already with the body along with Edrisa. “Looks like our killer went all out on this one,” Dani commented, noting all the blood. “Can’t imagine how that must’ve felt.”

“Very painful,” a new voice cut in. They all turned to see a tall man with a mustache and strangely dark eyeshadow. “Thomas here was conscious for most of his death. The direct cause of death was bleeding out though that was preceded by a  _ lot _ of injuries.”

Edrisa smiled and waved him over. “Everyone, this is Dr. Remus Sanders. He’s training with me for a while and he was awake when we got the call so here he is.”

“Remus  _ Sanders _ ?” JT looked between him and the victim. “Should he be working this case?”

Remus giggled. “Oh, relax. Tommy-boy and I only knew each other in passing. He was closer to my brother, you know how theater kids are. The name thing is just a coincidence. Super annoying in high school so let’s not relive that?”

Everyone shrugged and accepted that because they’ve seen more than enough weird stuff in their time to handle a name coincidence. Malcolm left the detectives to work the scene while he went up to talk to the survivor. He knew it was unlikely he’d get anything out of him but it was worth a shot.

He noticed there was a newcomer on the scene. A tall man with burn marks on the left side of his face was speaking quietly with their witness, though he didn’t seem to be getting any response out of him. Based on his professional dress despite the hour and the semi-obvious bedhead, he seemed to be a lawyer or guardian of some sort. “Hello? My name is Malcolm Bright. I’m assisting the NYPD on this case and I was wondering if I could ask a few questions?”

The man with burns on his face glared at him. “And what makes you think now is an appropriate time for this?” he hissed while the witness hid his face. “He just witnessed the torture and death of his friend. Do show a little tact.”

“I apologize. I just wanted to try and get an accurate account of events and I know memory fades, especially for traumatic events as they are more likely to become suppressed,” Malcolm explained calmly. “Are you alright to talk, sir?”

The guardian was about to snap at him again when the witness nodded. “My name is Virgil Sanders,” he murmured. “I don’t know how we got here. I think...we were out drinking. It was kind of a blur and then I blacked out. When I woke up we were here and this...person was there.” Virgil bit his lip and stared at his hands. “I….”

“It’s okay if you’re not ready,” Malcolm soothed him. “We will likely need some sort of statement from you in the future.”

“And when that time comes you can call me.” Malcolm was handed a business card for Janus Sanders.  _ Okay, that’s just spooky…. _

“Of course. We’ll be in touch, Mr. Sanders.”

\-----------------------

Patton was the one that answered the call. Logan was attempting to sleep and pretending he wasn’t worried while Roman paced around in the living room singing Disney songs to calm himself down. Virgil and Thomas hadn’t been answering any of their calls for hours. Janus suddenly received one from Virgil and went running out of the door. Remus had been on call and left a little before him, leaving the three of them to be anxious about four people instead of two. 

Patton was the one who got the good news that Virgil was alive and the bad news that Thomas had been murdered. Patton was the one who stayed calm on the phone while Remus filled him in on what he could before he had to leave. Patton was the one who calmly got the cookies out of the oven and called everyone to the kitchen.

“They found them,” he started, busying himself with cleaning the counters so he didn’t have to look at them.

“And? Are they safe? Will they be home soon?” Logan, ever the curious one. 

“Yeah, what’s up, Pops?” Roman contributed the attempt at a joke.

“Virgil is okay. Shaken, but okay. Janus should be bringing him home soon.” He ran out of things to clean so he pretended to be really interested in the calendar.

:”And Thomas? Is he injured in some way that would prevent his homecoming?”

_ You could say that…. _ Patton took a deep breath and set his glasses down so he wouldn’t drop them. “He…. he’s dead. Killed. Virgil was with him when it happened,” he whispered, voice cracking terribly.

The dead silence in the kitchen spoke volumes. Just last night, Virgil and Thomas had gone out to get some drinks. At some point, they’d stopped answering their phones. Now, Thomas was dead and Virgil was barely speaking. If Logan wasn’t feeling sick to his stomach, he would marvel at how fast life can change. If Roman wasn’t crying silently, he would point out how ironic it was that they’d gone out to live it up and ended up dying. If Patton wasn’t so focused on not crying, he’d wonder if Thomas wanted any of his things donated to the local homeless shelter.

But now wasn’t the time for such thoughts. Now was the time for grief and pondering the horrors of the universe. Now was the time for wondering what the point of living was if your life could be snuffed out like that. Now was the time for wondering if any of them could claim the body as none of them were actually related to Thomas and it was unlikely his parents would want it. Now was the time for wondering how the hell they were ever going to move on from this.

\-----------------------------

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Edrisa asked quietly as they wrapped the scene. “I know what you said earlier-”

“I’m fine.” Remus packed their equipment up, more than ready to leave and get back to do a proper autopsy report. “Thomas was a good friend and this really sucks but I’ve got a job to do and I have to do it. My friends are going to want to know what happened and I’m not making Virgil relive it just because I can’t handle a dead body.” He glanced up at her, eyes focused but shiny with unshed tears.

She just nodded, gently squeezing his shoulder. “Alright, if you’re sure. But I will tell you to go get some breakfast before we get started on the autopsy. You would think having an empty stomach would help when you’re examining a dead body but if you’re too hungry you won’t be able to focus.”

Remus silently debated that. If he stopped to get something to eat, he might actually have time to feel his emotions. If he lied about eating and just heading into work, he might not be able to focus anyway but at least his mind would be off of the fact that his friend was dead.  _ Focus, dukey. You have a job to do…. _ “I’ll get something,” he lied, heading upstairs.

Edrisa shook her head as he left, making a mental note to grab an extra breakfast burrito on her way to the office. 

And so, the work begins.


End file.
